No-clean cast rifle shooting?

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  • Last Post 06 November 2014
Canuck Bob posted this 03 November 2014

I read reports of folks who don't clean their cast bullet rifles.  I'd sure like to research the tricks and ways to develop cast shooters that qualify.  My plan is for 32 Special, 303 Brit, and 32-20 target and plinking shooting.  I suspect that everything will be gas checked and soft hunting bullets are not an issue.  I'm developing hard cast bullets for my 444 the only real hunting gun. Any tricks or ways to develop a no-clean system?

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jhalcott posted this 03 November 2014

I only clean my guns when accuracy goes away. I DO run a bore snake thru them before storing them in the vault. It seems that paper patched slugs need little cleaning other than powder fouling removal. Hard (lino) bullets are not neccassarily that clean shooting in my guns.

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John Alexander posted this 03 November 2014

Ah ha, another shooter who isn't in love with bore cleaning. With the right load you can go the whole season without cleaning.  Sometimes you can find such a load it requires good bullet fit and seems easier to do with bullets on the soft side.  It can be done in reasonably rough or smooth bores. I have been shooting such a load in my  223. It is a low velocity load (1,400 fps) and involves 700X or TiteBore and LBT blue for a lube. Bullet hardness is about BNH - 13. It doesn't seem to care what primer.

The last group I fired brought the total to 455 since any cleaning devices went through the bore.  It is shooting as well as earlier.  This is the load and rifle I use when I enter matches.

Don't clean the first time you get a bad group.  A group quite a bit bigger usually has nothing to do with bore cleanliness.

John

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RicinYakima posted this 04 November 2014

Joe Gifford and I wrote an article in The Fouling Shot back in the 1990's with our experiences. So today for my Springfield match rifle, it gets one clean dry patch at the end of the day. The next time it gets fired, I push one clean dry patch down the bore before firing. If I feel any resistance in the throat, it get one wet patch of Ed's Red, a couple of strokes with a nylon brush, and one dry patch. Here in the desert with primer residue and A2400, it sometimes cakes in the throat. Then a couple of foulers. I only clean down to bare metal the first time I clean a new bore. It seems to not make any difference after than. FWIW, Ric

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TRKakaCatWhisperer posted this 04 November 2014

Hmm. .405 Win. 300 or 362gr bullets (RCBS 40-300 and 40-350) all grooves lubed (plain based) put 1/8” cork wad under the bullet 10-11gr of Unique. Burns clean at accurate velocities (200 yards)- gets a little dirty if slower (lower pressure).

Once in a while I'll run a brush with a patch over it through a couple of times. That's ALMOST no-cleaning.

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joeb33050 posted this 04 November 2014

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JSH posted this 04 November 2014

I clean as well anymore. Eds red or kroil then a dry patch to take any excess out, unless I get some lead flakes. I have a favorite gun in 30-20. Run it with two or three different bullets from 120-165. Powder is either WC 820 or bullseye. I forget what my total was for the year, a bit over 1000 I think and never cleaned it. Did have to take a nylon bore brush to the throat to remove powder and lube residue. Kept a decent amount of records didn't see any + or - to it. So I just run a couple of patches through after each session now.

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R. Dupraz posted this 04 November 2014

''Ah ha, another shooter who isn't in love with bore cleaning. With the right load you can go the whole season without cleaning.”         Every rifle is unique as is the load combination used. And don't believe that there is one universal statement that can be made to fit all. Which is true with most aspects of this game. I am in love with accuracy and watch what that particular target is trying to tell me about that rifle. Some tell me to clean the bore and some don't. It all depends and do whatever works.   It's really up to the individual shooter to find out.    

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corerf posted this 04 November 2014

If and when I am able to shoot, the few rounds that I gravitate to need little more than a couple eds red, dry, then a storage eds red. NO BRUSHES for me. Life, as infrequently as I can live it robustly, is better since I stopped using metal brushes. I do use gas checks as the ones I gravitate to usually have some smack to them and higher velocity. Including larger CF rifle. White Label 2700 seems to make every bore I use it in very happy. Easy to clean quickly. But since its red and I use Eds Red, it can be hard to tell if its lube staining a patch or if its solvent. So I quit trying to tell! Who cares.

Quite honestly I quit striving for a clean patch. Seems like 500 patches later and still the patch comes out dirty. But the accuracy only gets WORSE thereafter and I have to recover the barrel to get accuracy back. I don't shoot anything corrosive (in smokeless rounds), my barrels are mostly of high quality and have been JB'd during break in (or broken in by Sven back in the old country). Thereafter..... no scouring. It just hasn't helped anything and only makes me feel like “I really got it clean that time” but probably screwed up by doing so. So I often leave them dirty(ish). Barrels are fine, even in long term storage. Dirty as above, Eds red 2 patch maybe, dry patch x1 or 2 then eds red for storage. Thats clean AND dirty at same time!

Dirty(ish)

Interesting, my most accurate rifle (gun period) is my Savage 22-250 BVSS which is heavily bolstered. Its shoots those teeny tiny groups that people don't believe. I stopped using a brush on it, ever. Every 100 rounds I might Jb for a patch or two and not aggressively. But thats jacketed. I tried early on to clean (over clean) but really only till after sufficient break in time. Again, kind of back to the Cast Bullet regimen above. I am afraid to alter a rifle barrel that consistently shoots .2 and well under in 5 shot groups, no matter conditions (rain or shine) at a whopping 4200+ fps. Ill probably never own another rifle that does this. And fear will keep me from changing any procedures till accuracy changes first.

Hope the last part is not off topic.

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onondaga posted this 04 November 2014

http://castbulletassoc.org/view_user.php?id=4124>Canuck Bob

I have a routine that works well for me. All my bores are polished and that makes them easy to maintain. All my cast bullets are sized for a sliding fit to the chamber throats, My alloys are selected to match the load level by the Lee book method. I pull a clean dry Hoppe's Bore Snake through once every 5 rounds. I only do a traditional clean and oil at the end of season or before long term storage.

This routine keeps my bores in a pretty level maintained condition with no buildup of anything and no over cleaning that strips bores, so no warm-up or fouling shots are required.

My bore polishing method:

http://castbulletassoc.org/viewtopic.php?id=8364&forumid=63

Gary

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Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 04 November 2014

joe:: dark mystery patch in barrel ::

i fitted anew shilen match barrel in 22-250 to a friends 40X p.dog rifle. shot great for a dozen shots, then had to scrub. after a couple cycles, we bore scoped it and about 1/3 way down we found a black patch. another couple cycles, we ran a slug thru and found a loose spot there.

so we guessed powder blow-by; a laquer build-up.

fwiw, shilen gave us a new barrel ... my only shilen barrel to have any problem at all .. and yep the new barrel shot teensy groups. reamer is a ppg, minimum saami, separate throater .

ken

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tomme boy posted this 06 November 2014

I went over 1500 rnds this summer on my 308 win. It was still shooting minute of golf ball at 100 yds.

That was with a 200 gr bullet and 2400, H4895 powder and RandyRats Tac1 bullet lube.

The only reason I cleaned it is I got a new mold and wanted to start fresh with everything clean. I sprayed foaming bore cleaner in the bore 2 times and let it sit over night each time. Then took a patch with solvent and wiped it down the barrel. Came back about an hour later and it took 3 dry patches to come out clean.

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